Enterprises that are working to maintain and protect their investments in information technology (IT) infrastructure have long sought and developed methodologies leading to greater utilization of assets, increased asset capacity and more intelligent integration with newer assets. However, as is frequently the case, enterprises instead adapt their business strategies to their IT infrastructure capacity. That is, if the current IT infrastructure does not support particular business initiatives, then those initiatives are often canceled, postponed or modified to fit current IT capacity. Obviously, this is not an optimal model for today's business environment. Enterprises recognizing that technology investments should be driven by business initiatives and technology requirements, rather than vice versa, will likely build a solid foundation from which to build and maintain their businesses.
Supporting an existing IT infrastructure while determining future technology investments is not always a straightforward proposition, especially for large enterprises. There are many interdependencies and variables that often need to be considered prior to committing to infrastructure investments. Determination of how an investment will affect or compliment the current technology infrastructure is vital to the infrastructure growth and migration plan of the enterprise. Because IT portfolio assets often comprise many individual elements, an IT portfolio manager may falsely assume that an asset is healthy when an overwhelming number of the components are healthy. However, this is not always the case. A single unhealthy asset component among many healthy components can render the entire asset unhealthy.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for assessing the health of a technology portfolio as well as the assets contained therein. More specifically, enterprises need a tool to enable portfolio managers to thoughtfully evaluate the current state of a portfolio in order to accurately plan and prioritize future projects, including purchases. Moreover, a need exists for a tool that will provide a detailed health assessment at the asset component level where a more precise understanding of an asset's health can be determined.